Will Wrestlemania be Worth it This Year?

With no real heat surrounding both heavyweight titles, a flaccid tag team division and few athletes able to have good matches with top youngsters Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler, what will be the big draw in the WWE’s annual mega pay per view?

With the Royal Rumble around the corner, you would think the WWE would have some big time feuds developing, but that couldn’t be close to the case at hand. While the company tries to present The Miz as the most talked about champion in the history of the company, he might ultimately go down as the complete opposite.

Small, with no real definable style, he’s not ready to be World Champion- heck, it’s possible he should have never been given the strap in the first place. But whom else do they give it to? John Cena doesn’t need the belt to sell merchandise or attract fans and Sheamus is in an often-instituted “second-year slump” by the WWE, in order to see if he has the tools to stay in the business. Now who else is left? CM Punk is a great wrestler, but has been fighting injuries and it remains to be seen if he can be the type of main event draw that the company needs right now. Everyone else on the roster is a has-been or hasn’t been given an opportunity to be taken seriously enough yet to warrant a spot on top.

The same thing goes for the Smackdown title. Even though Edge has won the title numerous times, he’ll always be looked at as a transitional champion, the same way Kane will be. Ziggler has the tools to be an amazing talent, but should continue to defend the Intercontinental title and build his in-ring resume. Jack Swagger has the ability to be one of the most heralded performers of this generation, but like Sheamus, was pushed too hard and too fast and now has to be settled down to see how much staying power he actually has.

Lets not even talk about the tag team division in the WWE because there isn’t one decent team in the entire company right now. The Divas division has more competition in it, with Melina and Nattie Neidhart able to at least deliver the goods in the ring. The only problem is Melina isn’t the draw she was five years ago and Neidhart, in spite of all of her in-ring talent, has zero charisma.

If you were actually going to buy Wrestlemania this year, it would probably be to see Bryan and Ziggler compete, but against who? Alberto Del Rio is being pushed for no reason; he’s a bore on the microphone and has a finisher that will put a speed addict to sleep. While he’d be able to have a decent match with Ziggler, they’d have little to say before hand, as both need to tighten up their ability on the mic.

Maybe Ted DiBiase would be a good dancing partner with Bryan, but with his losing streak and lack of ability on the mic as well, what would that angle be? What could they give the fans that hasn’t be done or seen before?
Ultimately nothing.

As a result, unless some new talent is brought in or the creative team in the WWE decides to step it up, this year’s “Showcase of the Immortals” will be an immortal failure.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14263 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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